Regular Meeting - 2/11/2025 6:30:00 PM

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I'll call to order the regular council
meeting in February 11th
2025 our invocation this evening will be
given by Pastor Tina Marie Reese of
First United Methodist Church
Pastor will you join me in an attitude
of Prayer
Creator God we come before you asking
for your presence with us today we seek
your wisdom and ask that you guide each
of our council members in their thinking
in their listening in their conversation
and in their decision making we are
aware heavenly father that we will not
always agree so we ask for patience with
each other and the awareness that there
is not always a single right answer but
more often a means of compromise and
collaboration
that leads to the best outcome for all
of our
residents grant us perseverance to seek
that best outcome in each issue before
the council
today we thank you for our council
members and our city leaders and ask
that you bless them for their service we
pray that you will rise up the next
generation of leaders who will serve our
community help our current leaders to
encourage them and Mentor them well
bless our work here today that Gilbert
might be a refuge for its citizens a
place of kindness peace and Economic
Opportunity for all who live here we
thank you for the beauty of our city and
state and for the natural resources that
you have blessed us with help us to be
responsible in our use of these
resources and to be faithful stewards of
our talents our bodies and our planet
May our meeting today honor you in
always ways and wait may we be faithful
in our service to each other and to you
we pray these things in your Holy Name
knowing that all honor and glory is
yours
forever amen
amen thank you Pastor our Pledge of
Allegiance will be led by council member
Bon
Giovani I pledge allegiance to the flag
the United States of America and to the
Republic for which stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for
all thank you roll
call Mayor Scott Anderson here vice
mayor bom Buckley here council member
Chuck Bon Giovani here council member
Kenny Buckland here council member young
Kowski here council member Monty Lions
here and council member Jim torguson
here aarum is present thank you we have
no presentations or proclamations
tonight so we'll go directly to our
public
hearings we have uh five items I believe
on public
hearings knowing that there's separate
discussion on items four and five I'll
Reserve that are there any other
concerns about items one two or
three I would just like a quick
presentation on two and
three okay
staff
good evening Council and mayor Anderson
I'm Sal DeSanto planner one here with
the town and the project will be taking
a look at tonight is annexation case a
24-1 East Pacos Road and South 164th
Street so before we get into the subject
s itself I thought it would be helpful
just to go over the annexation process
and what we've accomplished up to this
date and what's to come in the future
first first off the blank petition was
filed on January 16th 2025 with the
clerk's office and signatures from
vested Property Owners can start being
obtained on February 16th 2025 which
would be the end of the 30-day window
for the filing of the blank
petition once all the necessary
signatures have been collected a
follow-up hearing will be held for a
final Motion in the
future the purpose of the public hearing
tonight is to initiate the annexation
and also to receive input from the
community and Council
just to provide some more context for
the subject site itself uh here you can
see it outlined in blue I know it is a
little bit small on the screen but I
wanted to make sure we got the entirety
of the area shown in the vicinity
especially the cross-section of higgle
road and posos
road the parcel is situated at the
northwest corner of posos Road in 164
street which is roughly half a mile west
of Higley as I mentioned the subject
site is bordered by the town of Gilbert
residential zoning District to the
immediate north south and west while
Maricopa County zoning borders the
Eastern property line which would be
r43 I also wanted to note that the site
is currently owned and operated by the
town of Gilbert and was previously
purchased by R
rwcd and the site is actually part of
the wells development program here in
town which is to expand upon water
treatment infrastructure um and with the
hopes that the annexation will assist
with the construction operation and
management of the facility
here we have the annexation exhibit uh
as mentioned the subject site is the
area highlighted in yellow which is
roughly 0.19 Acres that is zoned r43
within Maricopa
County uh once annexed the anticipated
acreage of the Well site would be
roughly 42 Acres once we bring in the
proposed annexation site along with
what's already a part of the town of
Gilbert uh the request for anex would
also allow the property to be
incorporated into the town libbit and
would bring the site into the most
comparable zoning District which would
be our SF 43 zoning
District so just to summarize the
request thus far uh the 0.19 acre parcel
currently sits within Maricopa County's
Ru 43 zoning district and through the
annexation process the land would be
incorporated into the town into that
comparable zoning District of SF 43
ultimately creating that 0.42 acre
wellsite because well sites are also
permitted uses within the single family
residential zoning district there is no
accompaning reone or GP Amendment with
the with the
application forward there too far sorry
about that
sorry about that no
problem uh and just the last side here
um is just to gather some information
and input from the community as well as
the council uh regarding the proposed
annexation and as such no motion is
being requested tonight um and within
one year of filing that blank petition a
second hearing will be held in which a
motion will be
requested uh and with that I can open
the floor to any questions comments uh
about the proposed annexation thank you
thank you so any
questions I just want to this is my
point in asking this is that this is
part of the well program that's going on
with water and things such as the the
money brought forward uh Lauren
Hendricks help bring forward from the
state the $27 million Grant we got to
help with s with uh water wells and I my
point in having you speak about this is
what it's what we are doing as a town
all of us to keep water in here and
what's involved in it I think there was
something in that showed some of the
costs of it where some of the money went
I thought was that something we glanced
over
there in which particular side there
council member torus I think go back I
thought I saw something no I guess I
didn't I thought I saw something that
showed the appraised value and paid
value but
regardless uh I just wanted people to
understand that it's an annexation to
help bring them water
good evening mayor members of council
yes council member Tuson you're correct
this is a Well site that we had
previously acquired from rwcd um and the
annexation is to bring the portion of
the Well site that was in marope County
into the town and then combine it with
another little town-owned parcel that
wraps around um and yes it is part of
the wells program um that we did receive
state funding for from um last in last
year's budget process thank you
El I think I forgot to open the public
hearing but I'll close the public
hearing at this time no motion is
necessary on this item this is just a
public
hearing thank
you item three I'll open the public
hearing and invite staff to give a
presentation okay thank you good evening
mayor members of council um item number
three is land acquisition for the Muse
Road improvements um which is located
Higley south of rigs um these land
Acquisitions are for three regional
drainage basins that will take storm
water drainage from the improved Muse
Road area um this is negotiated amount
that the property owners have agreed to
um to allow the town to acquire this
property for so there is no eminent
donate needed um and then we just have
some details I believe counc this might
be what you saw we we kind of skipped
forward to the next item regarding the
praise value of the land that we are
acquiring um and just so to to highlight
this is an a doled project and it is one
of the um CMAC which is the air quality
U mitigation funds that uh is being led
by ad do and funded in order to pave the
unpaved roads in the town and reduce
pm10 um dust mitigation
thank you
questions comments council member
torgenson it shows that it's funded by
uh ADOT uh mag and cmaq is all of it
funded by that it's it's um mag
administers the CAC funds so it is CAC
funded and because it is CAC funded it's
an ADOT Le project but ad's not funding
any portion of it so and there's only
the there was some matching funds with
the town that have already been expended
for design so there's no additional
funds from the town needed excellent
thank you for taking the
time thank you Jessica thank
you I'll close the public hearing and
bring it back to the council for
discussion and Andor
motion I think we have to do separate
motions on each one is that correct
Chris each
resolution mayor we're looking at items
one and three is that correct or are you
talking about oh item three alone three
alone you could do it in one in one
motion just approval of item three as as
written in the agenda
okay there a
motion I'll move to approve item
three it's been moved by council member
Kowski seconded by vice mayor Buckley
please
vote motion passes
70 let's go back to item number number
one I'll open the public hearing any
discussion comments on item
one is there an applicant that would
like to
speak seeing none I'll bring it back to
the council close the public hearing
entertain a
motion I make a motion to approve item
one I'll second that been move by vice
mayor Buckley seconded by council member
torguson to approve item number one all
please
vote motion passes
70 items item four um question uh Chris
most of the comments I have from the
public are to address items at four and
five can we do those two together for
the hearing and then vote
separately yes mayor you can do that
okay
I'll open the public hearing on items
four and five and ask for staff
presentation good evening mayor and
council tonight we're going to talk
about the uh Wastewater sewer and
reclaimed water rates
so before we dive into the nuts and
bolts of what's been happening over the
last couple of months with our Outreach
process I want to remember what this is
all about it's about providing for the
way of life in cities through reliable
Sewer
Service none of us could live in as
close proximity to our neighbors without
Sewer Service without uh without Sewer
Service in fact sanitary sewer service
is the critical inflection point
in human history that has saved the most
lives more than fertilizers blood
transfusions and
antibiotics the infrastructure and
servants that provide this life altering
service are overlooked because the pipes
are buried and the facilities are kept
out of sight but it's our responsibility
to maintain this infrastructure even if
it's out of mind for the public and
we're coming to the intersection of much
of what has been installed in Gilbert
needing extensive Rehabilitation and
replacement it's costly to do this but
our lifestyle uh relies on
it so why is this happening now it has
to do with past growth and the birth of
the infrastructure to support those
homes and businesses that have been here
for decades you can see the addition of
new pipes and pumps over the years on
the map with the highest number of
installations occurring between 1990 and
2010 under a normal life cycle this
infrastructure would be
middle-aged but like all of us
infrastructure doesn't age evenly and
some of our midlife components have
reached the end of their lives the
artisian spring that you see there of a
force man bubbling up with sewage on
McQueen road is an example of our
immediate need to deal with our Force
Mains in a comprehensive way because
they are the spine of our collection
system this break caused many months of
disruptions to the roadway and to the
adjoining neighborhood we've got action
plans for rehabilitation where possible
and replacement when
needed similarly we know that the best
preventative medicine to protect against
degradation of pipes and manholes is to
diminish the impact of corrosive and
odorous sewer gases we're planning to
add numerous dosing stations to
counteract the effects of these gases
and therefore extend the life of the
existing pipes and as a bonus to improve
the quality of life around our sewers
due to decreased smells with these
prescriptions in mind we're now going to
focus on how we have gotten to this
point in time to fund these
needs nine months ago we began the
careful process of studying the options
to keep these Services running we shared
several options with both the Public
Works Advisory board and the C Town
Council last fall with Council narrowing
them down to the two options
that we presented to the public during
the last two months of intensive
Outreach tonight is the date selected
for the public hearing and the council
adoption of one of these options which
will be put into place on bills received
beginning in
April at this time I would like to turn
over the the community outreach efforts
portion of the presentation to Candace
and then when she's finished I'll come
back to walk you through some of the
themes of what we learned from the
public
mayor and Council good to see you um as
Eric said when we first met a couple of
months ago we talked about the notice
attent and approval to move forward in
community outreach to really make sure
that we were educating the community
about the critical needs of maintaining
this was Wastewater infrastructure
additionally we wanted to make sure we
provided many Avenues to actively listen
to the community feedback in a
constructive way so we're going to get
into that and give you a full landscape
of the full court press we did these
past couple of
months here is a comprehensive snapshot
of of what we put out for communication
standpoint as you recall the last time
we spoke I did show you a comprehensive
media consumption chart based off of the
demographic of the Gilbert Community uh
primarily as you're probably not
surprised primarily efforts were within
social media and digital however to
ensure that every uh utility customer
was effectively being communicated to
and understood where they could provide
their feedback we also did print out
about over 990,000 um General
traditional letters to the
customers for that I'll give you some
examples of those those efforts here was
our main landing page where citizens
were able to take a look at all of the
resources provided including the rate
study the rate calculator so they could
see how they personally would be
affected additionally we sent up
communication in the digital Newsroom
kept them apprised of the upcoming
virtual town uh virtual open houses
in-person open houses as well as
reminders about the onlay
survey the
newsletter digital displays and truck
signs so a lot of out of home as
well and of course our utility bill
billing notices digitally and
printed again we also hosted inperson
and virtual open houses where Eric and
team were able to provide help and
comprehensive understanding of the
infrastructure and answer Anye questions
that the community may
have a lot of social media as we know a
majority of our community is is
participatory in there you can see we
had over past couple of months 10 posts
but garnered over 128,000 views over a
th000 engagements uh and over 500
comments we also made sure again printed
uh we partnered with Gilbert on news and
made sure to feature from a printed
standpoint as well as digital and then
that letter
because of that full court press we
garnered a lot of media coverage to make
sure the again the community understood
where they could reach us and and
communicate to that point the survey
that we sent out garnered
about just went a little out of place
this should have been previously but I
mentioned social ads already so I'll
move forward to the survey uh we
garnered just over 600 or so respondents
that's about 7% of the overall custom
utility customers we have about 990,000
utility customers now we truly do
appreciate the respondents as you can
see here about 530 said they preferred
the alt D while 113 preferred alt B um
we do truly do appreciate that and based
off of this qu quantitative feedback we
also started to dive into the
qualitative feedback because in the
survey form we did ask for an open-ended
uh question to provide any additional
feedback for mayor and Council to inform
their decision of today's proposed rate
so Eric's going to go through that right
now so we had about 400 or so people
that provided comments on our feedback
form and they had a variety of thoughts
which I'm going to go over now we want
to recognize and acknowledge that
there's a sentiment of frustration with
increasing costs in just about every
aspect of citizens lives which is in
line with what people are across the
country are experiencing
whether it's electricity bills or the
cost of eggs or purchase of a new
vehicle the costs are rising everywhere
and people are understandably frustrated
with that we also know that failing to
make the necessary investments into our
sewer infrastructure will absolutely
result in exponentially higher costs to
our residents not even in the far-off
future but in the near term as well so
reinvestment in this infrastructure is
vital to our way of
life now you can see some of the the
themes that we had there one of the
quite positive and generally universal
theme that our residents gave us in the
feedback was that they understood that
in order to continue receiving these
highquality services that additional
resources are needed and there was
General appreciation for these
Services there were concerns relating to
affordability in general in Gilbert and
also specifically regarding Utilities in
recognition of this we do have the
utility bill discount pilot program in
place and we're researching and
reviewing data to improve its
Effectiveness in the coming
months respondents also wondered if we
have insufficiently planned for the
repairs to the system and if we should
have done incremental increases over
many years to keep up it's true that
Wastewater rates were flat for many
years in the past and it's a partial
cause for these large corrective actions
lately we're hearing now that a
different approach going forward is
preferred by the
community it's equally true that the
massive supply shortages and
skyrocketing construction costs of the
past 5 years were unprecedented events
that decimated construction budgets
across the country and right here in
Gilbert cost of materials in some cases
increased by more than
30% when you're talking about large
scale projects like our Force main
retrofits a 30% cost increase is
substantial in terms of actual dollars
there's also a very strong sense in the
community that new development in
particular businesses and apartments
have caused rates to rise because
they've not shouldered the costs
associated with their impacts we've done
our best to show that the impacts of
growth are paid for by that growth
through the system development fees and
those fees have also increased
significantly
recently in our Outreach materials we
are explicit that rates only pay for
operation maintenance and replacement of
the system and those are the only
Revenue source to fund these needs but
it's still a common
misconception and lastly respondents
were interested in more understanding of
where the money is going and being spent
and they also desired for more options
for funding these needs and true to form
they actually offered all kinds of
solutions and I'm going to share some of
these with
you I'm not going to read all of these
but these these are direct quotes from
the customer feedback Forum our
respondents had all kinds of creative
thoughts on how to help us make ends
meet you'll recognize a theme of making
growth pay for operations and
maintenance and this is illegal in
Arizona according to State statutes we
cannot do
that other areas of Interest are to use
funds from other sources to pay for
these Services some ideas included
charging for parking in the heritage
District or to forego Parks or
Transportation projects and instead use
the money planned for those improvements
to offset utility rates the
inventiveness of these ideas
demonstrates The public's interest in
helping to find Solutions and we are
very grateful for them
unfortunately Financial policies and
priorities and state regulations prevent
many of them from actually being
feasible
Solutions however we have done many
things to reduce costs that just haven't
been shared with the public and I want
to share a few of those from our teams
with you
tonight our storm water team has been
creative on multiple fronts which have
saved rate payers millions of dollars as
we studied options for rehabbing catch
basins and clogged and damaged storm
water pipes our contractors initially
suggested full replacement but we
weren't satisfied with that and we
continued researching and found repair
in place Alternatives that resulted in
over $1.8 million on just those two
projects our team also worked diligently
with our Congressional Delegation to
secure a grant for replacement of a
large stormw water pump station all of
these efforts were the drivers behind a
recommendation of no increase for the
Environmental Compliance fee this
year operationally in the Wastewater
division between our integration of
automation of valves and upgrading of
Motors to more efficient as well as
using our skilled labor in-house to
rebuild certain High degradation
components we're saving hundreds of
thousands of dollars per year in lie of
full
Replacements these actions rarely make
the news but are integral to our
commitment to producing value for our
customers now these savings are embedded
in the options provided to council for
continuing to fund sewer and reclaim
water service meaning without them the
request would have been higher
now you see one more um cost savings at
the bottom there and I'm going to pause
here to focus on that $1 13.8 million
riparian Grant we're one of only uh
we're one of only two cities in all of
Arizona to receive grants under this
program which we pursued in an effort to
reduce costs to our rate
payers when we were formally notified of
winning this grant we immediately began
researching an adjustment to the
increase proposal which would have
potentially been able to reduce the rate
increase in the all cash option by about
15% however given the uncertainty right
now regarding Federal funding in and in
particular Federal funding for Grants
we're unable to offer that alternative
we'll continue to closely track federal
policy regarding these funds and we'll
assist our options when we are certain
that we will get those funds that are
promised to us
these are the two options that Council
has narrowed down to these are
represented as the residential cost
impacts the differences can be summed up
in a few different ways as paying
Upfront for the identified critical
projects with all cash from our rate
payers or taking on debt of $110 million
and phasing in a smaller rating increase
now followed by a subsequent additional
rate increase next year in this scenario
the town would be required to pay
approximately $72 million in interest on
that
debt so just like paying interest on
your mortgage means less money going
towards the principle balance this means
that money would not go towards the
projects but rather towards interest
payments for the next 20
years the all cash option however makes
the rate funds available for the next
phase of capital projects that were
already pushed out while the cash Bond
option does
not it's important to note that
Gilbert's infrastructure will continue
to age during this time we're going to
continue doing assessments to ensure
that our pipes are fulfilling their
lifespan and that we're able to quickly
address situations where they are
not an earlier slide I referenced
Gilbert's explosive growth between 1990
and 2010 much of Gilbert's
infrastructure was installed in that
same time span and that means that
repair and Replacements are likely going
to occur all at the same time span in
the future so we'll continue to try and
prepare for this future infrastructure
bill as best as possible and that's one
reason why rates are examined every
other
year after several weeks of study and
review the Public Works Advisory Board
recommended to the Town Council to
select the alternative B all cash
option we have an an annotation up there
that the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce has
received a presentation similar to this
and after receiving that presentation
last month they recommended that Council
consider alternative D the phased cash
Bond
approach now I shared with you the
residential impact and we um presented a
similar cost impact prepared and shared
broadly for our commercial customers
under both of these Alternatives and of
course they have a slightly different
fee structure than the residential flat
fee so there's a little bit more data um
behind all of
that and we also shared a reclaimed
water rate impacts with the small group
of customers who received this service
in an effort to assist them with
financial planning back in June we
mailed a letter to these customers
notifying them that the rate process was
underway and that they could expect a
rate increase of similar magnitude that
had just been completed with the
drinking water rates now because these
customers do not use reclaimed water on
their
Landscapes this reclaimed water rate
increase will not have a compounding
effect for
them Mayan Council as I close I want to
help visualize what these dollars and
cents mean in the real world this pipe
was in service last summer at a iCal
facility that serves an entire
subdivision we know that there's more
like it out there in our system so we're
going to do the responsible thing we're
going to attack the problem instead of
letting it
Fester this is a list of the first five
years of our projects in our long range
infrastructure plan which is an 80-year
plan for every asset in the system so
there's going to be more needs coming in
the future deferrals now are only going
to build a severe backlog
this plan costs a lot of money today but
delay will only cost more money in the
long run and in the short run we're
going to have service crises and be
burdened with emergency responses and
the high costs associated with those
outages we're not alone in this
predicament last month in Japan we saw a
tragedy unfold much bigger than what has
happened to
us it's a warning sign that we need to
heed because What Lies Beneath us isn't
going to wait for us much
longer that's the end of my presentation
uh mayor and councel if you would like
for us to answer any questions at this
time or you'd like to wait until after
the public it's your
pleasure questions for
Eric council member torguson uh there
was a couple things the way that you'd
showed uh cash Bond versus the phased
portion it looked like the residents
were paying less all the way to for 5
years let's say but in the end it's the
same amount of money that has to to be
spent to fix this where is the balance
that we're not seeing that they're
paying is that just because they're
paying on it for 20 years yes uh mayor
mayor Anderson council member Tuson that
is that is the case the bond outlasts
that 5-year plan and so there's 15 years
of Debt Service payments interest
payments after that that the rates will
still have to support under the cash
option all of the the projects that that
Bond would have paid for are paid for in
cash meaning that additional rate
Revenue beyond that continues to pay for
projects so the town after five years or
in the near future under the the phased
approach with the bond would it have to
raise rates again in a probably a more
significant way in order to pay for
projects that begin to come into that
5-year plan and or take out another bond
in order to keep up with additional
projects all right and the uh one of the
questions that I've been hit with
recently and uh speaking to some devel
apartment developers people are upset
about apartments and growth which I
fully understand my understanding is
that approximately
14,800 per door of Apartments go for new
apartments is going and that would cover
part of their buying into the
infrastructure is that
correct uh Apartments do pay into this
infrastructure both at the time of the
system development fee when that land is
developed as well as they become a
routine monthly customer and they are
build at the residential rate like every
single family residential home is based
on the number of apartments in the
complex so if a if a if a 10 acre
apartment complex has 400 units on it
they get
400 times the residential rate so if the
residential rate goes up let's call it
$30 it's 400 time 30 so they're
incorporating into the rent because most
of them aren't paying a separate water
bill is what I'm
assuming I haven't rent an apartment in
a long time I I I I don't know exactly
how they do
that
okay uh
and the other thing is one thing you
didn't show is the cost of fixing it
let's say by sleeving or something else
now things that can be saved uh
extending their life what it costs as
opposed to failure M do you still have
access to that slide that you showed us
a while ago um uh I do not have that
slide with me um we do know that um one
one of one of the slides that you're
that you're seeing cycle through here is
is that pipeline from the video that we
saw earlier on in the in the slideshow
we are currently probably this week slip
lining that that pipe and we've we've
got um a contract that's coming to
Council in two weeks to to complete all
of that work for about $2.6
million which is expensive but it's a
lot less expensive than digging up the
freeway by probably several orders of
magnitude
vice mayor
Buckley um you answered most of the
questions that I had uh with council
member
torguson can you can you go back to the
slide that shows the rates if you don't
mind just it went by pretty quickly and
the residential rate uh right what the
rates will be on both um alt a and ALT
alt B yeah or D yeah so so on on this
one council member Buckley um the
residential rate um is a
$292 increase that that rate is
currently
$32.75 so it's those two added together
and then on the phase approach it's
$873 this year on top of the 28 um 75
and then 5 52 more the next year for
residential okay so what's the
difference between the two just so uh
the the main so the difference um at the
end of next year would be about4 or
$15 and that that is represented with
that $110 million bond that fills that
Gap and the $72 million of interest to
to pay back that Bond over
time yeah and that's where I was going
to go with that as well is um $72
million is probably going to take 20
years to pay it off
I mean obviously um
so I I to me it just you know I look at
this and it's such a tough it's a tough
decision to make for many reasons on
both sides but to think that you know we
are going to approve something or or
vote on something that will cause not
just the town of Gilbert but the the
residents to be pay for 20 years on
something that if we do the cash Bond
and and also I want to make sure I just
you know to me it just doesn't make
sense to do that I mean it's the the
conservative thing to do is to do the
cash Bond I mean I just can't see
approving something that $72 million in
interest I mean it's
astronomical the let's see um now from
from what I understand also if we don't
use if we do the cash Bond and we don't
use all of those
funds there let's say there's you know
several million dollars left over we can
then use those funds toward additional
projects right if we have any funds that
are left over from um the cash portion
vice mayor if
the if when under the the Bond option if
the $110 million Bond
um well I I'm referring to the cash
option the cash cash yeah the bond we
wouldn't we wouldn't have that we spend
the money and pay the interest yes so if
in um in the next few years construction
costs somehow go down and we're able to
do projects that we expected to cost
$240 million at at some number lower
than that will come back to coun in two
years under our normal rate review cycle
and make that recommendation to change
the rate to something that matches up
with what our expenses actually are and
um the all cash option certainly
provides that potential future which is
which is poal that maybe those rates
might go down a little bit if we yeah
and and that's why the example with the
the riparian grant that that nearly $14
million would have had a a significant
impact on these on the our opportunity
to bring the rates lower okay that and
that's what I wanted to find out all
right thank you very
much council member Bon gani thank you
mayor hey Eric um if I'm reading this
right sometimes I read these things
wrong but if I'm reading this right
you're saying after five years we do the
all cash Bond we have $39 million left
over for for repair for future pipes or
correct C remember that's correct or if
we do the phase we only have 17 million
that is correct so are these the same
the pipes that were put in the ones that
need to be replaced now you set up to
2010 approximately around
then you're testing my memory
2005 five oh five sounds about right
okay so are we to assume that pipes that
were put in in 2006 were the same pipes
that were put in in 2005
um the the the pipes that we are
emergency replacing today are very
limited in certain locations in Gilbert
as far as we know at this time we're
still researching to make sure um we we
do believe that the vast majority of our
pipes are not this
material okay I guess what I'm trying to
get at is that after we've fixed these
pipes chances are we're looking at the
next set of pipes need to be replaced
correct that's correct and and the
likelihood the the truth of the matter
is it's probably pipes that were that
were put in place in 1980 yeah that are
going to these are just kind of out of
line with their life expectancy and if
we know that we have future pipes to
fix probably be nicer to have $39
million in a bank account ready to fix
those pipes as opposed to 17
million absolutely okay thank you
council member Lions thank you mayor
Eric it's my understanding when we were
talking about this before that your team
has gone and inspected a good portion of
the additional infrastructure in the
town related to this is that correct we
have a um a goal of in inspecting every
pipe in our system every sixth
year we have we have not been able to
achieve that goal um due to various
reasons equipment malfunction and and
lean Staffing um but we've put some
other things in place in order to be
able to try to reach that goal going
forward and do you feel like those
mitigating measures are going to be able
to prevent something like this from
coming up
again I don't think any operator of the
system would be able to say that okay
thank you
council member
Bucklin Eric uh earlier today I got a an
email we got an email that had addressed
some concerns uh one that actually I had
that clearly mitigated it for me coming
into tonight it was one uh that the the
chamber one of our uh stakeholders in
town here had addressed in regard to
six-year inspection versus the eight
years could you expand on that just so
that there's transparency in that and
there's understanding that because as I
understand it dollars wise has no impact
six or eight um but can you just share
that um that response sure mayor um
council member Buckley Buckland
apologies
um so we have a six-year a very
aggressive goal of of um inspecting all
of our pipes every sixth year with the
ones in particular that are under the
freeway we did not meet that goal and we
did it on on the eighth year of that
cycle and we discovered that these pipes
were in emergency
condition had we discovered those pipes
um of the condition of those pipes two
years ago we still would have needed to
replace them this year we might have
actually had to replace them last year
um so the cost to do the replacement
would not have been any different we
just maybe would have done it last year
instead of this year the materials for
the delay apologies what was that and
the reason
for that delay materials are the same
labor is the same whether we did it last
year we did it this year all of those
are the
same yeah I think where where I was
going was um one of the things that you
addressed uh was that um although
certainly aggressive goals uh there were
um materials you we were limited in
equipment extremely expensive equipment
to inspect these things and
um Gilbert has operated very lean for
many many years and Staffing is always
capacity issue is that accurate that's
accurate we have we have a crew of three
people to inspect 900 miles of pipeline
wow council member Bon Giovani thank you
mayor um so we just mentioned 900 miles
of pipeline under there just want to get
the scope of this 22,000 manholes or
something like that too MH okay and we
we were
promised $13 million in Grants but
because of the recent
Federal freeze I guess do we think we'll
get that money or do we unknown at this
point so our opinion is that we have a
legally binding
contract
okay thank you council member Lions
thank you mayor uh Eric it's it's my
understanding when we were talking about
this that the materials that were used
before turned out to not perform the way
that they were advertised and you guys
were able to identify a new type of
material that you feel that you're
comfortable with that'll hold up a whole
lot better is that correct that is yes
thank
you Council May
Tuson the uh the grant money will have a
direct impact even if it's not if it's
not considered in this I'm rounding the
number to 30 and you said a 15% impact
which would have brought it down down to
2550 let's call it 25 bucks if that
comes in in the future will that be
reflected in a reduction at some point
or a termination of of the uh the cost
at some point we would accept that as
Revenue into our system and then that
absolutely affects the bottom line and
then the future calculations of rate
going forward as long as you can prove
it doesn't go over to Somalia first
right sorry I had to take the cheap shot
any other questions I have H one
question Eric would you go back to the
slide that showed the comments from the
residents you kind of zip through those
rather quickly I would like you to pick
two or three of those and read them and
explain why it's not viable sure make
the developers pay for this because all
the apartments are killing the
homeowner's
budget we're legally binded by State
Statute that we cannot charge new
development for operations and
maintenance of the system the only thing
we can charge them for through that
system development fee is the
installation of the new infrastructure
to serve their
needs cut spending in other areas and
use tax dollars
wisely so tax dollars are for General
government services not for utilities
these are operated independently as
Independent Business units that need to
be solely funded by the rate payers
themselves through
rates buy garbage trucks that aren't
$500,000 we would gladly do that we that
is from about eight years ago we could
have gotten them for
300,000 um it's even hard for us to find
them for $500,000 these
days thank you council member toras uh
you touched on the cut spending in other
areas and use tax dollars wisely would
you please that is the the Enterprise
fund and please expand on that as say
compare it to city of Mesa how they do
it sure we'll mention Mesa um so our
utilities in Gilbert pay for the utility
service in Gilbert they don't pay for
police or fire or whatever your least
favorite government service that we
offer they only pay for that
utility in our neighbors across the
border they collect utility rate revenue
and they transfer over100 million from
their utility funds every single year to
their general fund to pay for police
fire Parks or your least favorite
government service we don't do that in
Gilbert they stand alone and the general
fund has to stand alone also
and that was a policy set up quite some
time ago to make sure money wasn't bled
off into other funds and it's kept it
let's just for lack of better ter kept
it honest to what it is and just as an
example for everybody in this room I
have 12,000 Square ft in Mesa and they
do the Electric in that area the front
3,000 square ft
$2,800 a month for electricity it would
be about 8800 with SRP so it does get
bled off by other municipalities but all
right thank you for explaining
that council member Bon thank you mayor
I was so interested in council member
tas's story I think I might have
forgotten what I was just gonna
say
uh Eric Eric um I forgot what I was GNA
say so give me a minute I'll come back
council member Lions thank you mayor um
Eric if I'm understanding what you're
saying in the uh one chart where we
showed that if we go with the all cash
we would have 39 million set aside for
other projects uh correct and if I
understand what you're saying there'll
be a fence around that that that money
could not be allocated to something else
based on our policies that it would be
strictly set aside to do things
associated with this utilities uh
purpose is that correct yeah that's a
correct statement that $39 million um
per year would be in our repair and
replacement fund to do things like
repair or replace the next Force main in
that in those those 12 year long
projects that we have um which on its
own is about $12 million a year so um
those monies will be set aside just for
the Wastewater fund to do repair and
replacement on the existing
infrastructure so to be clear no other U
of our not favorite government services
could come in and take that it would be
totally fced off for you guys to use
that's correct all right thank you
you remember yeah I got it thank youvan
thanks for speaking quickly so I
wouldn't forget it
again uh can I assume that other cities
around us will also be seeing some
increases due to similar situations
because I know I don't know I don't
think it was a sewer line but down the
street from my house on velv Vista and
um Queen Creek I believe Mesa water line
had a blow and caused the sink cold and
it's been about a week or two before
we're fixing that so am I to assume that
other cities are going to start seeing
some of these things happening
too time is the ultimate winner it never
loses so all of our infrastructure in
the valley is aging and the repair costs
are coming
due we are I would say very Progressive
in this way in
Gilbert in that we're dealing with this
head-on and I would say that we're the
first in the pool and all of of our all
of our colleagues around us are looking
at jumping in with
us council member
Kowski Eric based on the information
that we just have discussed and is on
the
slide with the phased cash Bond
mix at the end of the 5 years do we have
enough to even cover our normal
operating budget
we would have enough to cover operating
which is just the day-to-day running of
the
utility we would not have enough
certainly in our repair and replacement
fund ongoing to fulfill the capital plan
after the fifth year thank
you other
questions no further questions of Eric
thank you Eric thank
you I've received uh
several Public Communication cards on
these items uh some did not wish to
speak and I'll read those into the
record um Stacy
shanki is opposed to items four and five
uh Mark Thompson who did not wish to
speak said that $30 increase per month
is $360
annually I don't earn that and a $30
charge increase he can't afford that no
more higher taxes or fee
and
Deborah
henr against the all cash option for the
phase cash Bond uh debt stop zoning for
apartments and condos in
Gilbert um the balance of the uh request
to
speak we'd ask as I call your name
please come up to the podium and state
your name and place of residence uh town
or city of residents and you'll have
three minutes for your comments our
first Speaker tonight is Scott
Huffman Scott will be followed by
Richard Morris so be
prepared push that button
there there you
go I am Scott Huffman live in Gilbert um
I moved here in
98 this is I'm in my second home um
Williamsville in Higley
area um from what I just heard um it
sounds like there might be a lack of
upkeep and
possibly using the wrong
materials um pipes that are put in in
2006 and they're already talking about
replacing them that
doesn't that doesn't something's wrong
there I don't I don't see why that
should be replaced so
quickly um as far as the rate increases
go um so in May of
2022 my bill went up 10
bucks in May of
2023 my bill went up 10 bucks then may
last year in 24 my bill went up 25 bucks
and now we're talking about this
year uh $13 if I have it correct
this madness has got to stop I mean if
if if the wrong material and the
upkeep's not being done on their part
then something else needs to be figured
out I I don't think the cost should be
taken upon the people of Gilbert um I
also think that maybe an audit or
something should be done and there might
be some services that we can get rid of
I don't know everything that they do but
I know right off the top um bulk trash
I've talked to people about bulk trash
you know I don't know how much that
costs I'm sure it cost quite a few
million dollars get rid of it I mean
it's not a necessity if if we're talking
about so in May of 20 if we go back to
23 and if everything goes the way it is
and there's another
$626 rais on our bill my bill is going
to double in three years at Double
that's that's
crazy um I think there's like I said
bulk trash and different stuff that we
can get rid of possibly you know
um I've asked people how much that I've
asked a few people about that and they
said that you know some residents are
upset about getting rid of it or
whatever I mean there's other options
subscriptions um maybe onetime fees you
know got Junk I just don't think that
the um if there if there's a possibility
of saving costs by getting rid of some
of those things to where my bill doesn't
have to double I think we should take
that
route and also figure out what's going
on with the uh
the upkeep and and stuff and also just a
quick note because I got 25 seconds left
SRP has having a meeting tonight also
about raising their rates for the next
year I believe and they're talking about
a $3 increase
$3 we're
talking $55 by the time we're done if if
everything goes as as you know planned
in the next three years
thank you thank you Scott Richard
Morris after Richard is Rick
peretta excuse
me good evening mayor and Town Council
my name is Richard Morris I live on
North Nevada way in the town of Gilbert
uh in the vicinity of the McQueen
Activity Center I don't think what I
have to say is going to make a
difference because I'm under the
impression of Town Council but I I could
be wrong has already made up their decis
decision on cash option for the project
it's understandable that nothing lasts
forever and infrastructure has to be
maintained repaired and replaced viewing
the vi the video presentation that was
on your site the town of Gilbert site
which is this gentleman uh which was
very well done it appears at the past
decade that nothing was done anticipated
addressing a future issue with the
Wastewater
infrastructure now that the potential
for future problems exist instead of
taking a bond you want to hit the
residence with a huge monthly increase
of 30 plus or minus dollars in April of
2025 for an infrastructure project plus
an in water increase for water of
another $12 in April of 2025 so you're
talking about a $40 increase in total uh
the past 5 years have seen covid-19
inflation cost of living increases in
rent mortgage rates Insurance utilities
taxes Etc this all cash option will
seriously affect the senior citizens of
the town the 60 plus age sector of the
Town represents 133% of the population
many probably are on fixed
incomes and if you listen to the news
many other sectors of the population are
having trouble making ends meet
especially families with
children because the Wastewater problem
wasn't anticipated by previous Town Cals
I'm
not the residents of the Town shouldn't
be hit with a large increase in rates I
believe the increase should be phased in
by curing a bond I think it was stated
in the video presentation that I saw on
your site the town has an excellent
credit rating curing a bond shouldn't be
a
problem and that's all I have to say I
thank you for the time to speak
appreciate thank you Richard Rick
Cara you'll be follow followed by Edward
maraglia uh hi mayor and uh council
members thanks for letting me speak uh
Rick carabetta Liv in gilber since
2005 I must have missed the town council
meeting where there was a lot of passion
about this particular issue because I'm
getting a lot of sober faces
here I am not an
engineer but I am scratching my head
trying to understand how an
infrastructure that can be put in over a
30-year period say 209 uh 1990 in to now
can
deteriorate to the degree that it has I
want to know who in God's green earth
came up with a decision to put these
materials
underground in this
city the composition of the water should
have been researched if it's acidic if
it's alkaline if it's uh
hard how can you possibly put metal
under under ground in water conditions
and then sit there and scratch your head
and say just 30 years later in a worst
case situation that we are where we are
today I don't understand it I don't see
the passion I may I wish I was at that
meeting where you're now asking us to
double a bill after the last gentleman
spoke where there was increase and
increase and increase over subsequent
years now is this what under the bridge
crying over spilled milk don't know I
just know that you guys or your
predecessors have got us into a
situation we are now bound to underwater
pipes that are sually deteriorating in
front of our eyes and it's sad and it's
pathetic so I'm going to be paying for
my funding is going to be paying for
prior mismanagement planning and
potentially materials and workmanship
that nobody has yet to address I've
heard what we need to do but nobody's
talked about the
workmanship that's been suggested about
Mesa and Chandler and
Tempe I don't hear on the news that
they're having deterioration problems of
their sewer lines like I'm here and here
I would like to hear
that a knowledgeable citizen is a happy
citizen we don't want to hear once the
damage is already already been
done
finally I think it was four years ago
what a huge misjustice to citizens of
Gilbert the system was in place where if
you used water then that water usage
translated to your sewer
charge why was that taken away and if
we're talking about rate increases give
the citizens the bone give the dog a
bone by reinstituting that
process if you use less water you pay
less of a sewer charge that was the
silliest thing I've ever heard of to
have that taken away all right thanks
for your time thank
you Edward Mor Moraga followed by Kevin
Carpenter good evening my name is Edward
moralia I'm a resident of Gilbert for
the last 20
years I'd like to thank the Town Council
for getting us all together and I'd like
to thank the city clerk for her response
to my phone
call but well the financial services did
a wonderful
report I agree with you and I agree with
the city that we do need to update the
Wastewater
situation I would like to address the
two things that we're looking at the all
cash and the cash
Bond and this is the Crux of the
matter we are not a community of
financial
millionaires we are every day working
people
with family kids
pets with household
payments a multitude of
expenses and some families live with a
very tight
budget and an increase in the amount of
all
cash will hurt
families the purpose of a city
town the city
council is to do what is best for with
the
citizens as in the medical
profession Do no
harm all cash proposal would do just
that
harm the cash Bond
mix while nobody wants to incur
debt sometimes is the best way to solve
a
problem by spreading out the cost of the
product over a period of
time with the least amount of impact on
the
financial burden of
families I would much rather have my
rates raised 9 to $10 a
month than the $ 29 to $30 a
month it's an amazing simple
economic simple
economics Plus a cash Bond mix will
help the council the council can keep
their goal of improving Wastewater
system without hurting the ciens
financially and I strongly encourage the
council to adopt the cash Bond mix thank
you thank you Kevin Carpenter be
followed by Lisa Banis
good evening mayor council this is my
first time here so I've uh excuse me if
I'm not articulate or I Stumble a little
bit uh but thank you for the opportunity
and also thank you for your
administrative staff that helped me
quite a bit kind of navigating this
evening um I am uh one of those people
that again is in favor of the um phased
in cash Bond um I never thought I would
be um an older retired guy but here I am
I are one now I'm a retired paramedic
and we don't you know the I am on
limited income just like many people in
the room um so plain and simple I can't
afford this any more than they can um
when I bought my home in Gilbert Ranch
I'm sorry if I forgot to introduce
myself Kevin Carpenter Gilbert Ranch um
my utility bill has gone up um
110% from when I first bought that home
if you add another 95% hike that's going
to be
200% increase in eight years that's not
cost of living that's not oh we have to
buy incidentals 200% is a
lot um the HOA has raised their rates
for the same reason um this price is
just not able I would like to go out and
buy a $50,000 pickup truck but I can't
do that I would have to get a loan again
along the same lines of this with a with
a bond I think that's the wiser decision
everyone in this room has to live within
a budget every single one of us um and I
understand that budgets go up and we
have to do
maintenance but I've never seen a
utility rate go down in in any
municipality I've been in ever ever
ever you you can say you can keep it out
of fund but it's not going to go down it
never
will the citizens of Gilbert in that
survey have told you what they
want they are giving you in fact a
mandate Council and mayor that they want
the bond issue they cannot afford it I
cannot afford
it I feel like I'm being taxed to death
200%
and with that I yield back my time thank
you thank
you
Lisa panas that was a very honest
attempt whoever said that it's Lisa elop
panas I live in Gilbert Arizona I have
been a resident uh for 25 years I had my
house built um about 23 years ago in
Gilbert and I absolutely love the city
however I am not qualified to to speak
into a lot of what's happened other than
I learned a lot I too was frustrated
with all of the new builds the
Condominiums the apartment complexes I
didn't realize the the requirements I
don't know that I 100% believe what was
said I'm just being very honest however
um I do know we're incurring cost as the
middle class that are squeezing the life
out of me personally you know this is a
this is a
$60 uh
bill in and of itself it was $30 that's
a 50% increase it's already been
mentioned my homeowners association has
gone up my car insurance has gone up my
home insurance has gone up my SRP has
gone up every utility I have has gone up
astronomically currently my utilities as
such are almost half of the price of my
mortgage so I have been a good
law-abiding citizen in the City of
Gilbert ever since I lived here I'm
thinking of moving not just because of
utility costs but increases that
continue to go and I will Echo what was
just said I've never seen any utility go
down ever in my history and I don't
think they ever will that money will go
somewhere else the other thing I wanted
to share is when I built that home I
incurred a loan somewhat like a bond and
I had to pay interest and I had to pay
extra money for that to have the
privilege of living in that beautiful
home and I would Echo the same on this
second option to get the bond and the
mixture so that we're not incurring all
that cost at once it's too big of an ask
it's just too large and I live within my
means I don't spend you know over but I
would also like to say I do feel someone
or some people in our department let us
down because I don't I I don't think we
should be in the situation that we're in
with the great need those pictures are
scary and I know they're real but we
shouldn't have that great need somebody
dropped the ball and I think we need to
go back and do some corrective measures
in addition to getting our pipes fixed I
think we need to look at how we're doing
things and maybe re-evaluate can how can
we do better because this is the City of
Gilbert and I think we can do better for
our citizens and that's all I have to
say thank you for letting me share thank
you Lisa very
that concludes the request to speak I'll
ask if Eric if anyone has any other
further questions for Eric I do council
member Bon Giovani thank you
mayor Eric come back to the
stand um Eric when the pipes were first
put in am I correct with what I read
that they were the recommended pipes for
EPA at that time
mayor council member bonani the pipes
that are in question
are there's three 500 foot spans of them
that go under the freeway so we're not
talking about all of Gilbert um but
these these pipes yes ductal iron that
was the standard at the time for those
those types of uses Gilbert has since
adopted a different standard for these
types of uses and so we've different
materials that do not degrade okay so at
that time that we put put those pipes in
we weren't using second rate pipes they
were the top of the line and recommended
correct that is correct okay also if we
did the cash
Bond and we found is there we found that
maybe five six years in there's more
repair to get done is there any
possibility of that
$6 going up during that $20 during that
20-year
period so this um let me I want to make
sure that I understand stand your your
question here so if let's say in three
years we we we learn that there are
additional costs even within the next
few years um there's very there's
there's a limited amount
of ability for the the fund to absorb
additional costs within that fee
structure so be and so um it also only
balances the 5 years so there's a sixth
year and a seventh year and an eighth
year um and so we would have the the n
and the $17 million to be able to
continue ongoing costs we know that they
are already above that um on the on the
repair and replacement fund so there
will need to be an additional rate
increase probably within the five years
even just to meet our our needs there so
we could be
at eight nine years into this we could
be at 15
$20 on top of that on top of that which
would be another 120 million in
interest
around I don't think I'm following the
math on that that's okay it'd be more
interest than the 72 million correct if
we another Bond yes another Bond yes
okay so there's a possibility that we
could get close to that
$30 what
um and the in the in the cash Bond there
could be a possibility that we could
be nearing that $30 increase with even
more interest if costs continue to rise
I see what you're asking see what I'm
asking the it's likely it's actually
probably very likely um because the
needs we know what the needs are in this
Five-Year Plan and we know that they
continue after that and they're not
provided for after that so the the
options will be another bond which
cannot be
under the current rates um or pay those
um in cash but you've already acred the
need to um pay back this loan this Bond
thank
you council member Alliance thank you
mayor Eric it's it's it's my
understanding that um when we did
discover this um in the under the pipe
under the freeway even if we had looked
at it a couple years earlier there was
already significant damage that would
have have had to been addressed at that
time is that correct that's that's
correct yeah so and and to uh council
member U Bon giovan's Point um this is
something this material was the standard
for the industry at the time and as my
understanding other municipalities are
starting to see similar types of
failures is that correct yes we're we're
seeing similar things happen elsewhere
all right so we're taking a proactive
approach trying to get in front of it
and you guys have identified where this
type of material is likely at in our
community and you're working on plans to
get that mitigated is that correct
that's right all right thank you council
member
torens I wanted to point a couple things
out the uh in the past rather than than
go looking in the past and everybody
wants to throw blame because it feels
great and it can be done you could
probably start singling out a couple
Council people or somebody that made a
bad call somewhere it doesn't solve the
problem the problem still has to be
decided between it's cash are
phased throwing blame is not going to
help because we can look back there were
a couple times where rates were actually
reduced whether anybody wants to believe
it or not it's a fact and the fact of
the matter is is we had an extremely
conservative Council which I completely
appreciate but they put the idea of not
an increase ahead for 15 years and
brought it down twice which resulted in
an inability to do some inspections
a judgment calls made somewhere along
the line it took eight years instead of
six maybe it should have been done in
three and no one can possibly
anticipate the failure that has occurred
if you buy a car you you think you're
going to get 100,000 miles but if you
don't check the fluids regularly and
that engine block breaks a 50 guess what
you're paying for a new engine or you
don't have a car so I don't want to sit
there and try and say that somebody was
too conservative because they didn't
give you a three or five% increase which
every year over the last 15 years would
be more than what we're talking about
under any
circumstances no one wanted to go there
everyone wanted to keep a zerob based
budgeting tight ship and judgment calls
were made on EV a bunch of
people whether it be staff or council
members that directed the policy I don't
think it's healthy for any of us to sit
there and look behind us and try and
cast that blame whatever the decision is
up here it's an ugly decision it's
uncomfortable it's expensive for
anybody everybody up here is subject to
whatever happens whether it's $14 or $30
no one up here is immune from
it no one feels good about
it it's impossible to feel good about it
so I want to point it things do go down
when they can go down and sometimes we
we got a little cheap you know as a town
no individual cheap rather than Frugal
with the money and yes we are paying the
price for it with this prot these three
500 foot pipes and others that are
degrading before us but please stop
looking behind yourself and let's try
and figure something else
out vice mayor
Buckley um I I would like to go back to
your conversation with council member
Bon
Giovani so you you said if we do the
cash Bond there is most likely we'll
have another raise in 5 years I just
want to make sure I heard what you were
saying correctly that it's possible
because this cash
Bond uh not cash Bond I'm sorry the cash
uh just the cash pay um so that in five
years that's going to cover what we need
to replace and repair over the next 5
years and at the end of that five years
you know we if we budget it right we
will use all of those funds for these
repairs so then the the ongoing that's
still I mean how many square miles are
we now that we've got pipeline going a
lot
so and I what where I'm going with this
is if we if we
also
take go go to the cash
Bond um the alt d right is the cash Bond
um section we're going to we're going to
use those funds to do the exact same
thing over a fiveyear period
correct that
that yes for the cash the cash we do the
same repairs the same everything over
five years with both yes so if we do the
alt D and we have a $14 a month less
payment you know by doing that in the
end we're going to have to to have
another increase to get additional funds
to do additional
repairs then we we are we are going to
still have 20 years to pay on that Bond
and $76 million or whatever that figure
was7 some million in interest to pay for
for so that five years really we're
going to be paying on that plus we'll
have additional raises in between am I
correct in that
thinking there was there was a lot there
that I I I want to make sure that I I I
communicate it clearly because I think
it's um it's very important that we get
this this communicated correctly yes the
all cash
option does not preclude the future from
rate changes so with the information we
have today this is this is good for five
years and we suspect it's um it's very
sufficient for years after that we'll
update every two years under all of
these under either of these options um
as we add the next years
in under the phased option where we sell
the
bond within this five years it is highly
likely highly highly likely that the
rate will have to be increased beyond
what you see here in order to just pay
for the sixth year of the plan that is
not represented because the bond does
not support anything in the sixth year
it only supports things in the first
five years on top of that the rate is
lower so we collect less revenue and
that Revenue that we do collect a lot of
it has to go to repay the bond so we
have just less cash available to do
anything even in the sixth year so it's
very likely that that phased approach
with the bond will require by the end of
this of this period that the rates might
actually be similar but we'll just still
have less available funding for for the
operations and the
maintenance okay I hope clarified I I
think you clarified that very well for
how I put it
but um yeah that that's what I wanted to
make sure that everyone understood that
just because we do the bond part does
not mean your rates may not go up again
later and then we're paying on we're
paying on the the $79 million in
interest plus another
another rate increase correct that's
correct
yes okay thank
you thank you
Eric I'll close the public hearing and
bring it back to the council for Action
Andor motion discussion Andor
motion on item four I think we do these
separately
oh council member
Kowski mayor I just wanted to add a
couple more items to our discussion and
based on some of the comments that were
made um by the public today I do believe
that
people in the community are looking at
their entire Bill versus just the one
line item that we're talking about today
this is just for the waste water um and
the reclaimed water and we know that we
have made increases in the water rates
as well um that have
increased the past two years and during
the water rate increase we did take a
bond and that was in that separate
Enterprise Fund in order to make that
phase in
increases um there was comment about
looking at bulk trash service to reduce
costs and I think that's something we
can absolutely look at as a council but
that again isn't a separate bucket of
money so on your bill your total bill
may go down if we adjust that bucket but
that's not the bucket we're talking
about
today um and then when we look at the
cash
Bond option it had that $72 million in
interest and one of the items that we're
piloting right now is the utility
assistance and I think that I'd really
like to see that expanded in a way that
it can help individuals that are more on
a fixed income and that need assistance
in this area um but we could put much
less than $72 million in interest into
that utility assistance and still help
those
individuals um versus burdening
ourselves with that interest so I just
wanted to comment on those on those
items as we I think we had great
discussion earlier though thank you
thank you council member bonani thank
you mayor um the night I was elected I
wrote myself three rules that I always
bring up when we have tough
decisions and this is a very tough
decision I had to bring it up a couple
times to myself in the last two years
but the rules are simple number One
never look at a long-term problem
through a short-term
Lens
two never vote on something just to make
you re electable
and three decisions are easy when your
values are
clear
um when I look at taking on debt for
this it may solve a short-term problem
because the economy is tight for for
everyone I understand
that uh My Hope Is that the economy is
short term and it does get better but I
hate to make a long-term decision based
on a short-term lens
um and occur more debt I don't believe
it'll be $78 million when this is over I
think we'll have to raise rates again if
we do the cash Bond and we may be
looking at 100 million 120 million with
the rate at the very with the rate
increasing to a point where it may be
near the
$30 uh per month that we're looking at
now um it's not a popular decision but
for me it's a decision that has to be
made for the good of the town so we
don't have a situation where it's even
worse and we have more
debt thank you
others
discussion I tend to agree that the the
debt is not good we've never like debt
nobody likes debt um and if we can avoid
that I think that's important one thing
that uh
was brought up that I I want to
emphasize again is that we still have a
pending amount of money that looks like
it's coming from the federal government
we don't know for sure right now but
it's actually since we have a firm
contract with them uh the chances are
more likely that they it will follow
through than it won't and that will
reduce the uh the cash option by
whatever x amount that is anything we
collect that way will reduce that that
rate so
I I I'm more positive about that
happening than um than I am about taking
on more
debt Patrick mayor if I could just add
some clarification on that matter so
when we set the rate tonight we can't
then not adjust it uh if we are
successful in actually receiving those
money but given that we look at rates
every two years we could certainly take
that into consideration when we uh look
to adjust rates or set rates at that
time that that could still turn out to
be A reduced rate in two years which
someone has suggested we've never
reduced the rate before that could
happen but council member Bon thank you
m that's kind of where I was going at um
whether we can put that in as an addend
to any kind of motion that we reevaluate
in two years if that money is available
I don't know the how that works Patrick
but um but that's something that we can
consider yeah mayor council member
bonani we do look at every two years so
no need to attend the motion we will
automatically do
that Chris and then mayor Anderson with
regard to the two separate items items
four and five I would recommend separate
motions right the council could do it
together but in case council members
want to support one and oppose the other
it would be much cleaner if you do it
separately thank
you Council council member
caasi I'll make the motion to approve
item for with the all be all cash
option may I amend to
that I would propose that and although
it's somewhat
ceremonial with a fiveyear sunset on
that so it has to be fully reexamined no
matter what happens so at least we're
not permanently saying which I
understand it's every two
years but at least we're recognizing
what a horrific
burden this
is and we look at and the next Council
has to at least step up and take the
same
responsibility and the same un
electability for doing it as we are here
and I think that's only fair because
we're at least recognizing that it's not
that it's going to be completely looked
at in five years it doesn't somehow just
continue forward so the the
increase is uh the
$292 increase is Sunset and it has to be
reexamined ask the uh person making the
motion how do you feel about
that um I think that's the decision of
the body I I I'm not going to amend my
the I'm not going to make that Amendment
okay Patrick mayor if if I may we do
review the rates every two years I'd be
more than happy to call up Kelly F our
budget director but I would advise
putting a cap on it in five years a hard
cap I'm not sure how that would be
viewed by writing agencies and and their
view of our support of the system um but
again we do review every two years and
if at at that time it's not necessary we
would certainly bring forward whatever
was appropriate and recommended to the
council for
consideration there's a motion on the
table
to adopt the cash option
for resolution
4537 mayor Anderson there's no second
yet just want to clarify that
second who
that council member Buckle counc member
Buckle been a motion by council member
Capri seconded by council member
buckin to go with the cash option
adopting resolution number
4537 for Wastewater rates Billings
generated after March 31st
2025 please
vote motion passes 61 with council
member torguson dissenting
item
five there a motion council member
Kowski I'll move to approve item
five um with the increase to the
reclaimed water rate through resolution
number
4538 also with the all cash
option is there a second
second by council member caasi seconded
by vice mayor Buckley should beat you to
it please
vote motion passes
70 thank you that concludes the public
hearing mayor that was 61 61 vote oh
okay I'm sorry I thought it was 70 61
was council member tor
dissenting consent calendar vice
mayor how do I
follow Oops I did that last time too
sorry I I'll get used to this
uh okay so uh I've a I've a received a
request from um council member Tuson for
a brief presentation from staff on the
items on the consent agenda um so can I
hear from staff on items number 6
through 13 actually through
12 we're grouping 13 in there since
that's all of the consent items
good evening mayor and Council my name
is Christ and Drew and I serve on the
people team and I'm here to speak to you
in regards to item number
six uh this is preventive MRI screenings
this is a contract with prenuvo to
provide preventive screenings to
employees 45 years or older for early
detection of cancer and other
diseases we provide two vendors for
employees to choose from prenuvo which
is before you this evening and SMI
Imaging which was approved at the
council meeting on January 28th these
screenings detect cancer and other
diseases which increase quality of life
for our employees and reduce cost to our
health plan which is self-funded this
program was piloted with fire and caught
several items that would have otherwise
gone undetected and had increased
impacts these highresolution MRI images
include a radiologist report and a
consult with the nurse practitioner the
town contributes
$520 towards the cost of the scan and
the total program with the two vendors
is budgeted at 320,000 and that's based
on anticipated employee usage happy to
answer any questions you may
have anyone have any
questions go ahead I and I know that
this is probably a repeat for you but in
the end this does actually say save us
money doesn't it correct so it's not
really well money well spent it's money
well invested it is an investment in the
health of the employees and as I
mentioned the health plan is self-funded
so any reduction in cost to the health
plan is a savings to the town thank
you all right any other
questions okay thank you very much thank
you and
Jessica can you state I guess the item
that you're going to be speaking on
since we're doing all of them yes mayor
members the council uh vice mayor
Buckley I am here for items 7 through 10
I believe uh item number seven is
riparian distribution structure this is
the completion of 15% design um for the
uh riparian distribution structure that
was mentioned um in the previous rate
conversation um this is to help with the
um cultur and biological evaluations for
part of the environmental clearances
that need to happen in order to use the
grant funding that that's being received
um on this project um it is um currently
budgeted um in the funded by the
Wastewater fund if we do get the grant
funds um finalized and formalized and
officially received then this will be
paid for by those Grant
funds item number eight uh is our Urban
Lakes renovation for the Cosmo Dog Park
Lake um this is for contract for the
actual construction of that project as
well as the next phase of the contract
for the um project management um with CI
this is um being funded by general fund
replacement funds um that are set aside
for the purpose of uh replacing general
fund funded
infrastructure item number nine is
lindsy Road improvements from Queen
Creek oao this is our little Lindsay
project widening to complete Lindsay
Road um all the way down south through
town um this is gmp1 with Hayden for the
actual construction work to happen it's
also construction management um contract
with civil Solutions engineering and
then quality assurance materials testing
contract with iner this design is
essentially complete and we're awarding
uh the GMP for construction at this time
um we have essentially acquired the
right of way needed for this project we
do have two that two property owners
that we're still negotiating with um on
that but we do have orders of immediate
possession so we can start construction
um and this is funded primarily by our
2022 voter authorized Transportation
bonds and then item number 10 is a
blanket contract with Ferguson
Enterprises for purchases of fittings
pipes hydrants repair clamps valves all
kind of miscellaneous apperances that
are used by both our water and
wastewater crew in the field um this is
a state contract uh $1.1 million per
year with up to four renewals and um
each Wastewater fund has their budget
that they use for their supplies and
then the water fund has budget that they
use for their supplies um and those are
paid for out of their respective
operating budgets but it's one blanket
contract because it's the same
vendor and those are mine if there's any
questions
okay Council anyone have any questions I
appreciate the explanation thank you
thank you
Jessica good evening mayor and councel
uh Glenn schlotman with economic
development I'm here to talk about item
number 11 our tourism marketing services
so we are requesting a change order to
the exis
jray uh tourism marketing Services
contract if
approved um it would add budgeted media
buys with subcontractors to the existing
contract um this
contract assists in our our visitor
marketing efforts to bring new money
into the community uh through visitor
spending and benefits Gilbert businesses
and town Services uh the funds being
added to the contract are already
budgeted in
fy2 and allocated uh to Media buys uh
80% of the contract is paid for with
prop 302
funding okay council member tus uh is
any of this paid with the uh the bed tax
money that supposed to go towards
tourism the existing 20% will be paid
with that tax funds okay thank you
anyone else have any
questions okay thank you Glen
thanks good evening mayor and Council
I've got item number 12 this is a
regular item that comes to you every
quarter uh when there
are claims that the town has and they're
settled through our uh risk department
they do get attributed to the department
that is associated with those claims we
don't budget for them upfront because we
don't know which department is going to
have claims or how much they are so
every quarter will bring you a report
and it will have information about how
much contingency is needed in each of
the Departments for any details on
specific claims um you can ask the town
Attorney's department and they could
give you information about that any
question council member torus I
overstepped I didn't intend to include
12 and I did so thank you for the
explanation but no problem I understand
sorry okay thank you do is uh does
anyone have excuse me any questions on
items 6 through
13 council member
toris oh no oh okay no I move to accept
all consent item calendar items as
written
second okay so we have a a motion by
council member tenson seconded by
council member Buckland right
so um with that then that oh I guess
let's vote please vote if no one has any
more questions council member torguson
do you have another
question off okay so it's there's been a
motion and um a second so please
vote oops I guess that's me that need
still needs to vote
okay so that concludes our consent
agenda and I will give it back to the
mayor thank you we have one
administrative item item 14 consider
acceptance of the budget report and
contingency report for the second
quarter of fiscal year
2025 I'll entertain a motion in a second
to
accept I'll make a motion to
accept I'll second that move by vice
mayor Buckley second and by council
member Bon Jani please
vote motion passes
70
Communications again vice
mayor all right to begin
Communications we value the part the
participation of our community members
in robust exchange of ideas however it's
essential that that this discourse
remain respectful and constructive
reflecting the professionalism expected
in such forms misinformation and
personal attacks undermine the
collective efforts and do not contribute
to the productive dialogue necessary for
our Town's progress this is an
opportunity for the public to address
the Town Council directly about issues
impacting the town accordingly the Town
Council will not allow for moments of
silence or playing of music or other
recorded materials which could distract
from the meeting decorum or violate
copyrights while we understand and
appreciate the passion of our community
members um bring this to this session we
remind everyone that clapping during the
meeting is not acceptable this practice
can disrupt the flow of discussion
potentially intimidate others and
distract from the respectful atmosphere
we strive to maintain tonight we'll
invite invite you to come up to the
podium when you come up to the podium
please state your name and your city of
residence and you will have three
minutes to directly address the Town
Council unless otherwise indicated if
the speaker will be using three minutes
of another person's time that person
should State their name the city they
reside in and acknowledge that they are
donating their three minutes to the
current
speaker and with that our current our
first speaker will be Richard
young please turn on your microphone
turn push the button for the
microphone there you go thank you
Richard young Gilbert good evening uh
council members and mayor I I my topic
today this evening is um office of
digital government uh black lives matter
and an issue that of institutional
memory that uh May persist when I was
reviewing my records on uh the office of
digital government I saw a photo of
Gilbert police taking a knee to Black
lives matter or perhaps uh George
Floyd uh that was the consensus National
consensus at that time I think it no
longer is but there may be a Persistence
of memory that I'd like to deal with to
some degree there that consensus was
based on two falsehoods the first one
was that because of institutional racism
the police in America were shooting
black people at a greater rate than
other people as a matter of fact that
came under study by Roland frier Dr
Roland frier of Harvard intensely he did
his study twice and he came up with this
conclusion on the most extreme use of
force officer involved shootings we find
no racial differences no racial
differences so we basically tore the
country apart for a falsehood the second
falsehood and it's a big one is that the
officers arresting George Floy somehow
killed him I think the evidence strongly
suggests that he did not and I don't
want that memory to continue with odg or
anybody else in this uh country the big
issue was the knee on the neck except it
wasn't on the neck it was on the
shoulder in an approved technique taught
by that Police Department Illustrated in
the training manual I have the
Illustrated illustration here it looks
exactly like the uh control of George
Floyd it is not a killing mechanism and
I gave um the gentleman over there a
copy of this material that I'm uh
presenting here
uh the important thing appears in the
autopsy and you have a copy of that in
the materials on page two of the oppos
autopsy at the very top it says we find
no evidence of lifethreatening
injuries if there are no
life-threatening injuries how did they
kill him and that included uh
examination of the neck looking for
signs of strangulation everything how
did the officers kill him with no
life-threatening injuries no stab wounds
no shooting no strangulation nothing of
that sort so what may have killed him
the autopsy also
discloses that there were 11
nanog of fentanyl in this system that is
a killing dose I provide also more
documentation on that a number of people
who died from fentol had on average
nine nanograms of fentanyl in their
system too lower than uh Floyd had he
had a killing a murderous dose of fenel
in his system did he have anything else
that might have injured him he had an
enlarged heart multifocal
arthrosclerosis 90% proximal narrowing
of the right coronary artery
75% of the proximal and left anterior
descending uh
artery he should have been walking
around with his own embalming fluid with
a condition like
that was there is there anything else
yes an adrenal gland tumor that causes
um high blood pressure rapid heartbeat
sweating headache and Tremors normally
in a criminal case I have to interrupt
you I'm sorry Pard I have to interrupt
you I'm sorry your time is up
okay you'll find it all in the material
that I left with you great thank you
thank you so much no more
nailing are
our next um speaker will be rayan
wood thank you and good evening Town
Council and mayor my name is rayan wood
I've been a p proud resident for over 30
years of Gilbert I'm here once again to
continue the discussion regarding the
Trees and Landscaping in College Park
Country
Estates at the town meeting in December
and again two weeks ago I addressed
several several
inaccuracies that had been presented to
the town staff and subsequently repeated
by the Town Council and the previous
mayor where the you call these
misrepresentations
falsehoods or lies the fact remains the
claim that College Park country states
is the only neighborhood in Gilbert
where the town maintains Landscaping in
the public
rideway is simply not
true through a public records request we
have identified seven
locations where the town of Gilbert
provides Landscaping Maintenance seven
locations let me share the maps with
you the first one is the area of
Greenfield and Queen
Creek there's maintenance being done by
the town of
[Music]
Gilbert the next area is Warner and
Cooper also being maintained
also we have west of Gilbert Road north
of
Elliott with landscaping and maintenance
being
maintain the area of Guadalupe and Burke
all these are highlighted in
red Lindsay and Warner
[Music]
area Gilbert Road South of Elliott north
of Hackamore Street that was Hackamore
Street Lindsay Road South of
Guadalupe so that's seven more
areas as
is as you can see this is not limited to
our
neighborhood parts of the Heritage
district and other areas also receive
maintenance from the
town during the December meeting the
town staff
a town staff member or a council member
made two statements one the maintaining
of our neighborhoods Landscaping is
unfair to other
taxpayers
two that other neighborhoods might
perceive this as
unfair as a taxpayer and a property
owner with a plat and an easement
agreement that exp explicitly outlines
maintenance responsibilities and
considering that multiple areas of
Gilbert receive Landscape Maintenance I
find this entire situation as
unfair please review the information
that's been presented to you and make a
decision with the facts get all the
facts from your your town councils your
town staff thank
you thank you our next speaker will be
Brandon would and um
Allison will be donating her time to him
so Brandon you will have six minutes and
Allison can you uh acknowledge are you
are you in the audience oh there you are
okay thank you so
much good evening mayor and council
members thank you for allowing me the
opportunity to speak
tonight I'm here to challenge the deeply
flawed and misleading justification
behind the proposed removal of the seven
red gum eucalyptus trees in College Park
Country
Estates these trees are not just part of
our neighborhood they are taxpayer owned
assets that provide shade Beauty and
environmental benefits to our
community Town staff claims these trees
are a safety hazard due to their
susceptibility to sudden Branch
drop yet the arborous report
commissioned by the town itself directly
contradicts this
the report clearly states that all
eucalyptus trees again all eucalyptus
trees not just the redgum eucalyptus
trees are susceptible to this
phenomenon despite this fact Town staff
are arbitrarily targeting these specific
trees while ignoring the reality that
eucalyptus trees continue to exist and
Thrive across
Gilbert what's wor what's worse Town
staff have publicly stated that they no
longer plant eucalyptus trees this is an
outright lie just this past
December five new eucalyptus trees were
planted in the water water park
Plaza you can see them here right below
the right below the water tower five new
eucalyptus trees that town just planted
just last
month in fact there's a plaque with most
of your guys's names on it at that same
park how can the town justify removing
these trees under the guise of safety
while Sim simultaneously planting new
ones this blatant inconsistency exposes
the true nature of this decision it's
not based on fact or public interest but
on misinformation and arbitrary
enforcement
even more concerning these trees and our
neighborhood fall within the newly
designated Northwest Gilbert
revitalization
area where the T where the town has
committed to preserving and improving
mature neighborhoods like
ours Town staff just approved this
revitalization area last
year and their first call to action in
this zone is to remove the Landscaping
in one of Gilbert's oldest neighborhoods
the town itself has acknowledged the
importance of proactive revitalization
to prevent Decline and enhance the
quality of life for residents yet
instead of following their own stated
Mission they are actively degrading our
neighborhood by removing valuable
healthy trees that contribute to its
character and
livability furthermore the arborous
report does not rec recommend
removal instead it explicitly states
that proper maintenance including
structural pruning and Crown reduction
significantly reduces the likelihood of
sudden Branch
drop the report emphasizes that trees on
a frequent pruning schedule have far
fewer incidents of
failure yet instead of following the
advice of certified professionals Town
staff are choosing to ignore science
disregard expert recommendations and
push their own unfounded
agenda this raises serious concern
why is Staff opinion being prioritized
over professional
expertise why are taxpayer funded assets
being destroyed based on falsehoods and
contradictions the trees in question
have been deemed low to moderate risk
they're not
hazardous removing them is not is not
just unnecessary it's wasteful dishonest
and a betrayal betrayal of public Trust
I've stood here time and time again
stating fact after fact after fact I
have presented evidence expert
recommendations and clear contradictions
in the town's
reasoning yet despite all of this the
Town Council continue to ignore the
truth it's time for this Council to
stand up for its
constituents and for the people of
Gilbert stand up for one of Gilbert's
oldest neighborhoods stand up for the
residents who cherish their Community
save the shade and Street skate master
plan and enforce Town
policy I demand that the council put a
stop to this baseless removal and hold
Town staff accountable for their
misinformation follow the arborous
recommendations Implement a proper
maintenance plan stop using deception
and arbitrary policies to justify
removing healthy taxpayer own
trees the public deserves transparency
and fact-based decision-making
not lies and Reckless
destruction thank
you thank
you with that that concludes the
citizens comments so back to you
mayor thank you for your comments uh in
future meetings we have a couple couple
of items uh to follow up on a meet and
confer in a study session related to
comparative traffic accident data next
go to Communications report from the
town
manager thank you may have just they
bring up the
presentation okay we can go to the next
slide I just have one item for you
tonight like to recognize maitlin
hassard senior plans examiner from the
development services team has become a
master code professional master code
professional is the highest level of
designation that the International Code
Council offers to achieve this
designation mland has been certified in
over 17 categories within icc's family
of certifications only about 1,000
members of ICC have achieved the mCP
designation and the town's very lucky to
have him congratulations maitlin and
we're glad you're on our
team that it yes thank you Mary close
out the presentation
thank you report from the
council council member bonani okay I
didn't get my usual report so I'm gonna
wing this one on my own so good luck
okay some parks are wreck on um on
February 12th there's a dog etiquette
class so does your dog talk back to you
does he talk during TV um does uh does
he pull on the leash there's a dog nut
class on 212 from 5:00 to 6:00 on 2:15
family bird walks I hope that doesn't
mean you walk your family bird believe
that's at the reparan park to go bird
watching from 25 on um 8:00 a.m. to
12:00 p.m. on
2:15 okay um there's a res on 2:20 at
6:30 to 8:00 residential landsc
Landscape Workshop maximize your
watering system um I hope that means by
using minimal water and then on the 25th
at 7:00 a.m. at 2:30 p.m. uh our 14th
annual Gilbert Water
Festival um and that's
it thank you council member Lions thank
you mayor um there are many uh veterans
and currently active duty military
members that live within the community
of Gilbert and we'd like to pay tribute
to them and honor them for the service
that they offer to our country and to
our community as a part of that we have
a program called the military tribute
Banner
program um and in this program uh
basically you can purchase one of these
and they're displayed in the Heritage
District on Memorial Day Independence
Day and the 4th of July at the uh end of
that period the sponsor can keep this
particular banner and um as a momentum
so we would encourage you if you want to
participate in this the banners need to
be ordered by March 31st so that they
are ready to be uh displayed for the
Memorial Day weekend and we really
appreciate all the sacrific that these
folks do and we thank them for
that thank you any
others from the mayor I have a couple of
follow-up items uh first thing I I
mentioned the passing of Dr Wally deluy
who is one our finest uh school
superintendent I wasn't sure of the date
but that memorial for him is on February
the
18th it's coming up it's at 5:30 at the
Gilbert High School auditorium
and I think I had a couple of other
items to follow up
on it volunteer M MVP awards the
nominations are open right now February
3rd through the
24th nominate a
volunteer uh and uh this includes
nominations for youth volunteer of the
year and the Gilbert kindness group
award and then we also
have Gilbert feeding families with the
food drive is going on
um starting uh um now through February
23rd and um this has been a great
program in the community one that's
supported by so many members in the
community so you can find a place where
you can donate food during this food
drive just uh look up online
and I'll let you know where where those
locations
are thank
you if nothing else I'll entertain a
motion to adjourn I make a motion to
adjourn all in favor say I I I we're
adjourned e